This M.A. thesis written at the University of Victoria
during 1968-69 seeks to determine the causes, nature and
effects of the Great Depression of 1929-1939 on the important
Western Canadian metropolitan centre of Greater Victoria,
British Columbia. Comprised of four municipalities -
Victoria City, Esquimalt, Oak Bay and Saanich - Greater Victoria
had an image of itself as an affluent, conservative, geographically
isolated urban centre. Furthermore, the capital city
region had, from the turn of the century, become less and less
important in relation to its larger, burgeoning sister,
Greater Vancouver; which in turn provided a perfect opportunity
for life in the Island community to become even more insular
than it had before.
As the critical decade of the 1930's began, however,
events forced Victorians to discard their protective coccoon
in order to survive as a city. Compounding their difficulties,
the city's overall economic decline was broad and swift; while
recovery, when it finally did occur between 1933 and 1939, was slow and sporadic. In the early years of the Depression,
however, many citizens in the area still tended to regard
their fundamental economic and social problems as local ones;
and therefore, attempted to marshal local resources in the
forms of charities, municipal governments', and service
organizations so as to bring a measure of relief to everyone.
Yet their efforts were not enough. Sometimes, as in the case
of Victoria City for example, there were insufficient economic
and financial resources on hand. / Graduate / 0334
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/5411 |
| Date | 20 May 2014 |
| Creators | Gallacher, Daniel Thomas |
| Contributors | Careless, J. M. S. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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